


I Wouldn't Change A Thing About You

by RavenpuffWrites



Series: You're The Sunflower [12]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (yet), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Peter Parker, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Has Anxiety, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Peter Parker isn't Spider-Man, Precious Peter Parker, Tony is a good dad, tony is Trying His Best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-02-23 12:24:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23578126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenpuffWrites/pseuds/RavenpuffWrites
Summary: Peter has a bad day at school, but luckily his dad is there to help him through it.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: You're The Sunflower [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1469042
Comments: 17
Kudos: 245





	I Wouldn't Change A Thing About You

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired in part by a prompt from my friend, Storytelling_Sparrow, and partially by a song from Barbie's Princess and the Pauper.   
> It turned out far longer than I planned, but Peter had things to say so you know, I had to let him say them.   
> (The song, by the way, is called Cat's Meow if you haven't listened to it, you definitely should because it's great and Tony sings a version of it for Peter in this fic).

It wasn’t that Peter didn’t like school. Actually, he really enjoyed school most of the time even if he did find most of the work really easy when he managed to focus long enough to get it done. But it was exciting to get to learn new things, and his teacher this year had even started to give him harder work so he wouldn’t get too bored which was a lot of fun. And he got to check out books from the library whenever he wanted, which let him learn lots more things they didn’t talk about in school. The best part of school though was that Ned was in his class again this year, and the teacher let them sit together which meant Peter got to talk to his best friend all of the time. Although sometimes he did get in trouble for talking too much.

But Peter really liked school.

Or, well he liked most of school. There was one part of it that sucked quite a bit, and that was his other classmates. Besides Ned, no one at the school seemed to really like Peter. Especially not Flash, who was one of the more popular kids in the 4th grade. Since the day Peter met him in Kindergarten, Flash hadn’t liked him, and if Flash and his friends didn’t like you, then no one else did either. And while most people weren’t as outwardly mean to Peter as Flash was, it still hurt to see the nasty looks thrown his way when he started talking too much in class, that they refused to play with him during recess and no one wanted to sit near him at lunch.

When Ned was at school it wasn’t so bad, because together the two of them could ignore basically any comment thrown their way by making jokes, especially since Uncle Clint had spent the summer teaching them sign language meaning they could do it without anyone knowing what they were saying. Peter felt practically invincible as long as Ned was at his side.

But Ned hadn’t been in school today. He had a dentist appointment which meant he couldn’t be there, which meant Peter was all alone and if that wasn’t bad enough, it meant he didn’t have a partner for the project that day which meant he had to work with Flash. Peter wound up doing all the work while Flash goofed off with his friends and they all made fun of Peter. And then when he finished, Flash told him that all of his drawings were awful and he should have done a better job because even a baby could do better. Which wasn’t even true! Peter had felt so proud of what he had done before Flash had said anything because even if it wasn’t as good as Mr. America it was a lot better than he had done before. The worst part though was when the teacher came around and complimented Peter on his poster, Flash had immediately butted in and said that he had done most of the work before Peter even had a chance to argue. All of his stupid goonies had backed him up, which meant Peter got in trouble and now had to redo the assignment that night to get credit.

By the time school had ended, Peter was about ready to run out of the school. Happy was supposed to pick him up that afternoon since his dad had a really important meeting he couldn’t miss. Happy was later though than his dad usually was, which meant Peter had to deal with Flash for an extra 15 minutes until he could finally escape, and he was very near tears by the time he climbed into the back seat.

Peter didn’t talk the entire car ride home, except to assure Happy once that he was fine, just tired from a long day and didn’t feel like talking. He was pretty sure Happy didn’t buy the excuse for a second, but he also didn’t push Peter any further to try and get another answer, just turned on some music that he knew Peter liked just loud enough so that the boy wouldn’t hear him sending a message to Tony that his kid was upset and needed his attention when he got home.

* * *

When Peter trudged off the elevator almost an hour later, he expected to find the living room empty. His dad was supposed to still be in his meeting, and technically Peter was supposed to go to the Avenger’s floor after school to do work but right now he didn’t really want to be around anyone. Mostly he just wanted to climb into his bed and hide under his covers until it was time for bed when his dad would come in and read him a story, and everything would be okay again.

“Hey Sunflower,” Peter’s head shot up. Maybe he didn’t have to wait for tonight for things to get better after all.

“Dad? I thought you had a meeting?”

Tony shrugged, patting the seat beside him on the couch. Peter dropped his bag on the floor, running across the short distance and jumping up beside his dad, smiling just slightly as he was instantly pulled into a hug.

“I did have a meeting, but Happy said you weren’t feeling too great so I left early. Pepper’s probably going to have my head for it later, but I figured it was worth it for something more important.”

Peter frowned, scrunching his nose up in confusion as he looked up at his dad. “What’s more important?”

Tony booped Peter gently on his nose as he replied: “You are, Sunflower.”

“Oh,” Peter breathed, blushing slightly. “That makes sense. But you didn’t really have to leave your meeting for me, dad. I’m okay.”

“Kiddo, you know I can see right through that lie, right?” Tony asked, smoothing Peter’s curls back from his face, looking him over slowly. Peter didn’t seem to be physically hurt, which was good because if he had been Tony wasn’t sure he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from storming the school then and there to demand an answer. But he did look upset, his eyes tired and full of unshed tears, not even a trace of his normal smile on his face. “Did something happen at school? Did you and Ned have a fight or something?”

“No,” Peter mumbled, ducking his head, wriggling himself so he could hide his face against his dad’s chest over having to face him and explain why he was upset. “It’s stupid, don’t worry about it.”

“Peter, nothing is stupid if it’s making you upset,” Tony said gently, trying to encourage his son to lift his head and tell him what had happened. But Peter refused to budge.

After a few minutes, Tony decided he should resort to a different tactic.

_“I can see it when you’re feeling low, you can’t hide that from me.”_

Peter’s ears perked up slightly, but he didn’t lift his head. “Dad, are you singing?”

Tony smiled, humming lightly in confirmation before he went on

_“You’re no status quo, kidlico”_

Peter wrinkles up his nose. “I don’t think that’s a word.”

_“So why keep trying to be?_

_Cause you’re more than that, you’re a super kid._

_I wish you could see the you I see.”_

Peter sighed, lifting his head just a little to argue “Yeah but dad-“

Tony placed his hand gently over Peter’s mouth, cutting him off.

_“I say if you’re smart, celebrate it._

_Make your mark, serenade it._

_Every kid should have a friend like you_.”

“You’re probably the only one who thinks that.”

Tony frowned, pausing slightly at Peter’s words. What had happened today that made him so down on himself?

_“And if what you are, is a strange you. Doesn't mean, you should change you._

_Only means, you should change your point of view.”_

Tony bent his head so he could look his son in the eyes, but Peter only sniffled quietly and quickly hid his face back against Tony’s chest. 

_“Sunflower, you are just fine. To thine own self be true._

_Your smile, it makes my day. It’s how I know you’re you._

_You don't need the bows or tiara._

_Bid your woes, sayonara_

_Trust your heart, cause it knows the way to go.”_

Peter attempted to move impossibly closer to his dad, hands balling into fists around his shirt, a few tears escaping his eyes before he had a chance to stop them.

Tony began to pet Peter’s hair in an attempt to soothe him, still singing

_“When you spin your tales, you’re enchanting._

_Spirits sail, when you’re rambling._

_When you laugh, you light up the whole room.”_

Peter sniffled again, louder this time as the tears now ran freely down his face and soaking his dad’s shirt slowly.

Tony moved his hand down to stroke Peter’s back, rubbing in small circles as he let his son cry, waiting for the right moment to finish

“ _There is not one hair of you, that I would rearrange._

_I love you the way you are, and that will never change._

_That will never change.”_

Peter sobbed softly, breaking Tony’s heart in the process at how _hurt_ he sounded. If only he knew exactly what had happened, he thought, maybe he would be able to fix it, but Peter wasn’t willing to say just yet.

But Tony could wait. He had cleared his schedule for the rest of the day to take care of his son and instructed JARVIS to keep everyone out unless it was an emergency. So until Peter was ready to speak, Tony would sit there and hold him and remind him over and over it was going to be okay.

* * *

When Peter started to calm down, Tony shifted over to grab the tv remote, turning it on at a low volume to one of Peter’s favorite movies. It didn’t take long for his son to wriggle his way to lay down, head in Tony’s lap as he watched the movie, and the last few tears dried on his face. It seemed to be the right move because by the end of the movie Peter was finally smiling again, although he still felt ready to crawl into bed and sleep for a long time.

Peter kept waiting for his dad to ask him again what had happened at school, but as the credits began to roll and all Tony asked him was if he wanted to order pizza for dinner that night instead of cooking, Peter started to realize maybe he wasn’t going to push it. That if Peter didn’t really want to tell his dad what had happened at school, he didn’t have to.

But now that he didn’t have to, Peter kind of really wanted to. He wanted to tell his dad all about Flash and how he took credit for his work and got him into trouble when he had done nothing wrong. Wanted his dad to reassure him he was right to be upset, that what Flash did was wrong and it wasn’t his fault even though he didn’t try to argue with the teacher at the time because his throat closed up and suddenly, he couldn’t make words.

How was he supposed to bring it up though if his dad thought he wanted to move on? Was he making a bigger deal out of it than he needed to if he told his dad now when he had refused to early? Was it wrong that he wanted to tell his dad and see him get upset that someone had lied about his kid? And if he told his dad what happened, would he go down to the school and get Flash in trouble? Wouldn’t that make him hate Peter even more and make Peter more of an outcast?

Why did it have to be so difficult? Why couldn’t his dad just kept prodding him for answers until he gave in, and why couldn’t Peter just tell him what had happened without having to overthink it all?

“Peter? Hey, what’s wrong kiddo?” Peter hadn’t realized he had started crying again until he heard his dad speak, and felt his hand wiping away the tears running down his cheek. He was still laying down, but at Tony’s coaxing he sat up so he was facing him on the couch. When Peter didn’t immediately answer him, Tony tried again: “Sunflower, I can’t read your mind. I need you to tell me what’s going on in that brain of yours so that I can help you out.”

“Sorry,” Peter sniffled quietly, dropping his gaze from his dad’s face as guilt bubbled in his stomach. Now he had gone and gotten his dad worried all over again for something that wasn’t even that big of a deal. All because he was being stupid and emotional.

“Hey, no, none of that,” Tony shook his head, ducking his head to meet Peter’s eyes, cutting off his thoughts as if he could read his mind. “No talking bad about yourself, no thinking bad about yourself either. You have no reason to apologize, you hear me Sunflower? You have done absolutely nothing wrong.”

“I have!” Peter protested loudly, blushing slightly when his dad simply raised his eyebrows at his change in volume. Peter closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down like his dad had taught him before he continued at his normal volume. “Today at school, Flash lied to the teacher and told her that he did all the work on our project even though he had spent the whole time talking to his friends. So I got in trouble and have to do the whole thing over again, because when she asked me if it was true my words got all stuck and I couldn’t tell her it wasn’t!”

“And I wasn’t going to tell you because I didn’t want to make you upset, and I didn’t want Flash to get into trouble cause that would make him angry and he already hates me and I really don’t want him to hate me more and have a reason to be mean to me. And I didn’t want you to be disappointed in me cause I didn’t stand up for myself even though I should have cause that’s what a superhero does and I want to be a hero just like you, but I can’t cause I can’t even protect myself. But then when you didn’t ask I started to get upset because I wanted to tell you cause I tell you everything and my brain was being mean about it and if I told you you could help, but I couldn’t because I didn’t want to worry you and I wasn’t supposed to bring it up and I couldn’t make the words. And then I started to cry again and worried you anyway and I’m sorry!”

Tony listened patiently as Peter explained every last thought running through his brain, wanting nothing more than to cut his son off in the middle of his rambling and assure him right then and there that none of his thoughts were right, he hadn’t done anything wrong, and Tony could never be disappointed in him because he was the bravest kid he had ever met. But Tony knew it was better for Peter to get his worries off his chest over holding them, and that interrupting his son would only likely cause him to get more upset, so he sat and he waited and when finally the words stopped and all that was left were tears, Tony pulled Peter gently into a hug and started to address everything he had just said.

“Thank you, Sunflower, for telling me what happened. I didn’t want to push you to talk if you didn’t want to, but I guess I should have realized you probably did and just didn’t know how to say it. I’m sorry, I promise I’ll do better next time.”

“No dad-” Peter started to protest, but Tony cut him off before he could.

“Hey, let me talk now okay, kiddo?” Peter nodded, dropping his head somewhat reluctantly onto his dad’s shoulder as Tony continued. “It is my job as your dad to worry about you, okay kiddo? I don’t want you to ever not tell me about something that happened just because you think it might worry me. Never let my reaction stop you from telling me something, because at the end of the day the only thing that matters to me is that you are safe and happy, and I will take a thousand grey hairs to know that is the case. Understand?”

“Yeah,” Peter mumbled, feeling just a little bit less guilty than he had a moment before, although he still felt bad his dad had to tell him something that in hindsight was pretty obvious. “Thanks, dad.”

“Of course, kiddo,” Tony said, kissing the top of his son’s head before he added “I’ll call your teacher tomorrow and explain to her what happened okay? No, before you protest, Peter listen to me. You do not deserve to get in trouble for someone else lying, do you understand me?”

Peter had shot up the minute his dad mentioned calling his teacher, his eyes wide because that was the exact thing he didn’t want to happen. If he called the teacher and Flash got into trouble, he would make Peter’s life more miserable than he already did. “Dad you can’t tell her! Flash will get in trouble and he’ll blame me for it! I told you he already hates me, please dad you can’t do that to me!”

If Tony hadn’t been concerned about his son before, the panic in Peter’s voice definitely had him concerned now. What had this kid done to Peter that got him so scared of him? And how had Tony not noticed his own son was being bullied?

“Sunflower, hey calm down kiddo it’s okay.” Tony soothed, keeping his voice as even as he possibly could, despite his growing concern and desire to demand answers out of Peter right then and there. It wouldn’t do either of them any good if he got upset. Or if he pushed Peter into something he didn’t want. “Listen to me, Pete, Sunflower, if you really don’t want me to talk to your teacher, I won’t. I don’t want to cause you any distress, okay, that was my last intention I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, dad,” Peter sniffled, tapping his finger lightly on his leg as he tried to count his breaths, calm himself down from yet another outburst he hadn’t meant to have. If it hadn’t been such a long day, if Ned had just been at school, things would have been fine and would have been able to control his emotions better. And he wouldn’t have told his dad about Flash, would have kept it a secret like he had meant to. “ ‘m sorry for getting upset. I know you just want to protect me and stuff.”

“Speaking of protecting you, kiddo,” Tony started, faltering slightly when Peter peered up at him between wet eyelashes, practically begging him to not bring up what he was about to. But this was not something Tony could just let go. “Peter, how long as this Flash kid been bullying you?”

Peter mumbled something Tony couldn’t quite hear, although his heart skipped slightly because it sounded like…

“Can you repeat that I didn’t quite hear what you said.”

“A few years,” Peter reluctantly replied, his breath catching in his throat as he watched the answer sink in, and slowly anger spread across his dad’s face.

“A few years?” Tony repeated, his voice dangerously close to being raised, and Peter nodded quickly, curling in on himself slightly as he waited for his dad to get yell at him like he did all the time with Captain America. Tony managed to keep his voice level though, even as the anger and guilt bubbled up inside him threatening to explode. “Peter, why in the world did you not tell me this was going on sooner? Why didn’t you come to be, the moment that it started happening, so that we could have stopped it right then and there? You’ve never even mentioned this kid to me before, neither you or Ned, even when I asked you how school was, you never brought this kid up before.”

“I didn’t want to bother you,” Peter whispered, cutting through Tony’s anger like a knife, replacing it only with an immense amount of guilt and the faintest bit of hurt. “It’s not like he’s really bullying me or anything, just saying some mean stuff all the time and trying to make me get upset. Ned and I are real good ignoring him most of the time, it’s just Ned wasn’t here today so it was harder.”

Peter bit his lip, looking up at his dad. “You worry about me so much already; I didn’t want you to think you had to worry about me for this too. And I know you said that’s your job, but I thought I could make it easier by not telling you and everything would be okay. But I guess that’s not true.”

“No, it’s not.” Tony agreed, staring back at Peter wondering how something like this could have slipped through the cracks unnoticed by him for so long. Peter came to him about _everything,_ or at least so he had thought. So where had the lines of communication broken down? And how did he get Peter to not keep something like this from him again?

“Dad?” The sound of Peter’s voice pulled Tony out of his thoughts, and when he noticed the anxiety that had crept on to his son’s face, he realized that he must have fallen quite for longer than he had thought.

“Sorry Sunflower, I was just thinking,” Tony said in what he hoped was a calming voice, although Peter could still see the distress hidden in his dad’s eyes. So he did the one thing he knew how to do to make his dad feel better, which was to crawl across the couch and give him a hug.

“I know you say I think too much, but right now I think you are too,” Peter commented, smiling just a little when Tony poked him gently in the side for saying that. “It’s not your fault I didn’t tell you about Flash. That was my decision. It’s just like how Mr. America doesn’t really talk much about the war because he doesn’t want to think about it. When I’m home, I don’t want to think about Flash either.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Peter added, and Tony couldn’t help but marvel at how _old_ and _wise_ his son had sounded. Not for the first time, it struck Tony how much Peter reminded him of himself at that age, with too much knowledge of how the world works and too little time to be a kid. He thought, for the most part, he was doing a pretty good job at keeping Peter safe in his childhood, but every now and then there was a slip into moments like this.

If he hadn’t known it already, today proved more than anything that he had the best kid in the world.

“I appreciate your honesty with me, kiddo. I know it can be hard to talk about things we’d rather forget, but sometimes we have too. Sometimes it gets too much for us to carry on our own. Like today,” Tony said, and Peter nodded his head in agreement, feeling better now that he finally seemed to be on the same page as his dad. And now that he had gotten them out into the open, dealing with his emotions and the thoughts in his head seemed a whole lot easier. “So here’s the deal I want to make with you. I am okay with you having things you don’t want to tell me. You’re growing up, and I trust you to be able to know when you can handle something like this kid Flash on your own, and when you need to ask for help. But that means you have to promise me that if you ever feel like you’re in over your head, with anything, you will ask me for help. Even if you don’t want to worry me, or you’re afraid I’ll get upset, you still need to ask me, okay? Because at the end of the day my job as a dad is to support you the best that I can, but if you don’t talk to me we’re going to have more situations like this and I don’t know about you, Sunflower, but I really didn’t like this.”

Peter shook his head. “I didn’t either.”

“So you talk to me, okay? Let’s not ever let things get this far again.”

“Okay,” Peter agreed, and Tony pressed a kiss on the top of his head before wrapping Peter into a hug, causing the boy to hum contently. “I love you, dad.”

“I love you too, Sunflower.”


End file.
